Read Online

02/28/2014

Rex Damschroder would have qualified as a write-in in Lucas County

The murkiness of Ohio's elections laws was revealed again this week by a decision in Lucas County that apparently conflicted with what Rex Damschroder was being told would have been the policy in Sandusky County.

The Lucas County Board of Elections on Thursday certified two write-in candidates who were in the same situation as state Rep. Damschroder (R., Fremont): Shaun Enright and Dennis Duffey, both to the Lucas County Democratic Party Central Committee.

Enright and Duffey both turned in flawed petitions before the May 5 candidate filing deadline and then withdrew them after the deadline, but before the board of elections voted to disqualify their bad petitions.

On Thursday they were certified as write-in candidates.

Damschroder was expecting to coast to his first unopposed election this year in the 88th House District, but instead discovered he had omitted signatures on two of his five petitions.

He withdrew after the May 5 deadline as a candidate but before the Sandusky County Board of Elections acted, and then debated publicly whether he could then file as a write-in, which is a valid way of winning the Republican nomination (as long as you're certified as a write-in and you get at least 50 write-in votes).

He said he was advised by GOP lawyers in Columbus that he'd be disqualified if he tried to file as a write-in. (The deadline was Feb. 24). He's calling the fall-back plan "Help Me Rhonda" because his wife is the key. Rhonda Damschroder will run as a write-in. If she wins the nomination on May 6 she'll step aside and the Sandusky and Seneca county GOP chairman would appoint him to replace her as the GOP nominee.

Why would the Lucas County elections board vote unanimously (except for the absent Tony DeGidio) to certify two candidates while the Republican lawyers in Columbus take the opposite position in a nearly identical case?

The Lucas County position seems to be the more commonsense reading of the law, and if it errs, does so on the side of letting people on the ballot.

The controversy in Sandusky County has emboldened two other Republicans and a Democrat to take him on, and the Damschroders' plan to have Rhonda openly run as a "place-holder" has drawn a Democratic protest.

My Blade colleague Federico Martinez has a story about the Lucas County petitions in today's paper.

Here's what the Secretary of State’s 2014 candidates’ handbook says about candidates getting a second bite at the apple after filing a flawed petition:

“...a candidate who timely withdraws his or her candidacy prior to board action on his or her petition and prior to the filing deadline may file a new petition for the same or a different office in the same election as the withdrawn petition.“... ‘timely withdraws’ means … (w)ithdrawing as a candidate before the applicable filing deadline for filing a declaration of candidacy, declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate, or nominating petition for the subsequent office for which the person is seeking to become a candidate at the same election.”

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Similar to the Coble case but involving resubmitting petitions to replace flawed petitions. Sounds like he could have done it that way, but may not have had time. Coble / Mahoney won the case at the OH Supreme Court.

Tells you a lot about how competent Rex is as a legislator. He should know the election laws of Ohio and all the loopholes. He gets elected because people still think they are electing his father, who was one of the original Neanderthal politicians.They vote for the name. Time for someone else to represent the good people of that district competently. Maybe the election petition snafu is a good thing, and it is time to retire the family name from Sandusky County politics.

Lucas County certified candidates to the Lucas County Democratic Central Committee - and not incumbents. Yes, representing Lucas County Democrats is comparable to representing Democrats and Republicans in most of two counties in the State Legisature.
Besides: It's a moot point. Rex didn't challenge the decision.
He chose his direction and has to abide by it.
I know after conversations with you that you lean toward Damschroder.
Now... how about you tell your readers about ORC 3599.36 Election Falsification?

A candidate who withdraws a petition before the BOE acts on it may refile new petitions in advance of the filing deadline, or may file as a write-in in advance of the write-in deadline. I won a case in the Ohio Supreme Court for Neal Mahoney in 2011 that confirmed that as the law (and Steve Hartman won a campanion case for Coble). The law in this area is complicated and difficult to navigate without legal counsel. It sounds like Rex would have benefited from good legal council.